


And That's It

by Kees



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Kent Parson & Jack Zimmermann - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 05:38:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7605739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kees/pseuds/Kees
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kent wakes up on his 10th birthday shaking with excitement. If a birthday wasn’t cool enough on its own, sharing a birthday with America was even cooler – and the red, white, and blue birthday pancakes his mom makes every year are just a sweet, sweet bonus.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And That's It

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't going to post this because it's very notfic to me, but I think I should.
> 
> One of my head canons is that Kent takes his mother's maiden name, so his last name isn't Parson in the beginning.

Kent Brown grew up being told by his father that hard work wasn’t a necessity, that if you sucked up just enough you wouldn’t have to break a sweat a day in your life. Responsibility only had to be claimed if it was beneficial, and could otherwise be dumped onto someone else’s lap. Stepping on others was just a part of climbing the ladder in business – selfishness gets you farther than selflessness after all, and David Brown was a selfish man.

Kent wakes up on his 10th birthday shaking with excitement. If a birthday wasn’t cool enough on its own, sharing a birthday with America was even cooler – and the red, white, and blue birthday pancakes his mom makes every year are just a sweet, sweet bonus. This year though, instead of eating barbecue and watching fireworks until bedtime, him and his mom spend the day in the only lawyers office that’s open in all of upstate New York on the Fourth of July. That’s what happens when your Dad splits in the middle of the night and takes the only thing that mattered to him – money, and you have nothing.

He goes to sleep on his 10th birthday shaking with anger, and curled up on an unfamiliar leather couch while his mother signs papers to try and keep them afloat.

It doesn’t take long to change their names, and six months later his baby sister is born as Emma Parson and then they all match. She’s tiny, and just about the cutest thing he’s ever seen, and he’s just so mad at his father for leaving her.

Hockey is the only outlet he has. It’s expensive in more ways than one, but he’s able to keep playing thanks to donations from his incredibly kind neighbors, and a suspiciously coincidental school fundraiser.

His anger carries into his teen years, and powers each shot he takes on the ice until he gets into Bantam and is finally able to check, and it helps there too. The excess leads to fights in school, and three suspensions in two years. His heart breaks every time his mother talks to him about his fighting in school and her voice wavers, but he can’t stop. It just buzzes under his skin until his hands shake, and it finds an exit whether he likes it or not.

He still has hockey, and that’s what matters.

Kent is apparently too short to play professionally. It’s something he hears every other day from parents and sports writers, but his skill keeps them quiet until the next game. They’re too busy whispering about Bad Bob’s wunderkind prodigal son now to notice the QMJHL scouts start to trickle in when he’s 15, and he has a new found drive to shut them up for good.

He doesn’t fight people in school anymore because hockey runs him ragged now that he has an endgame and goals. He takes his lingering anger out on himself during practice when he feels like his legs will give out during suicides but he can’t afford to let them. There are still little bursts, but he learns to deal with them the best he can.

His mom likes to joke that the pent up anger was keeping him short, because he grows three inches the year before he joins the Q and feels more comfortable in his skin than he ever has.

____

Kent tries so hard to hate Jack Zimmermann when they meet in New Brunswick. He has a thick accent, and his eyes are so light they almost look fake, but he’s quiet and kind - everything Kent isn’t. They click immediately during their first practice, and are just about permanent line mates before they leave the rink that day. They’re best friends by the time October rolls around, and when the season is over they’ve set records and suddenly everyone is watching.

Although Kent may consider Jack his best friend they don’t click as well off of the ice. Jack’s anxiety and depression make him unpredictable. Sometimes he’s fine, sometimes he’s so quick to anger it’s not worth trying to talk to him. Sometimes he spends hours on the phone with his therapist, only to disassociate and lock himself away for the rest of the night. He’s on meds so he can’t sneak beers with the rest of the boys, but he sits there to listen and stays long enough to get them to their rooms if they get too drunk. He’s a good guy, but he’s struggling.

It never shows on the ice.

The following season they find out the NHL is expanding to three new cities. The entire hockey community immediately knows Jack is going to be drafted by the Las Vegas Aces. They had won the draft lottery and wouldn’t dare pass up on the Zimmermann legacy. He’s hounded by the media after every game, and has a handful of interviews with the Ace’s management in a single week. Everything is prepared.

Kent is happy for him, but something is off.

He knows there’s something wrong with Jack but he keeps it to himself.

Three days before the draft Kent gets a phone call from the Zimmermann’s saying Jack had overdosed and was in the hospital.

Three days after that Kent gets drafted first overall to the Las Vegas Aces and doesn’t have the time to drive his sister around anymore let alone worry about Jack.

He’s alive, and for now that’s it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :-)


End file.
